Topic: NX aparantly not as powerful as PS4 rumour. Discussion on good/bad things this could mean.

It might not be too much more powerful than the Wii U. Not that it would matter, at least they should be able to build superb games with the hardware at that point.

Won't it need more RAM if the games are gonna be streamed?

It doesn't matter. It's a chicken and egg sort of thing. For gaming the amount of RAM you need is determined by how much RAM you can actually use. The only way to use more RAM is to bump up the quality of everything and run at a higher resolution. In order to do that you need to have more horsepower. So unless this thing is going to run at 4K/60fps? It won't really need much more than 8GB shared.

NX will be an ARM based handheld/console hybrid. Third parties will mock. I will buy anyway!

The NX could still work even with less power than the PS4 if it is priced cheaply and it contains a wide variety of unique games. However, their biggest problem will be getting 3rd party support to the NX. If the NX has less power, then I don't know how Nintendo will be able to persuade 3rd parties to bring their big games to the NX.

@crimsontadpoles: Yea, and I mean, we still don't know how much "less" NX may be (going off the rumor article, yes, but that's all we have at the moment). We see the Wii U, which is MUCH less powerful,l and it can still crank out BEAUTIFUL graphics (Pikmin, 3D World, Mario Kart, Splatoon). So even at that tech level, we know we can get some amazing stuff.

So if the NX is even just a tiny bit less powerful than PS4, in a year or two, that's really not going to matter much, because devs will know how to squeeze every little bit out of dated console tech. And to save money, it may be a good idea to aim for something just a bit lower than PS4 knowing full-well that the ability to develop for roughly that level of tech will be sky-high by late 2016. So I think to devs, at least, if the NX is CLOSE in power, it won't be a huge deal, but...

I can see the mainstream gaming headlines, though: "Nintendo Releases New Console: Still Less Powerful Than PS4/Xbox One." And on cue, people would go rabid, slamming Nintendo for their inability to know the consumer and become modern. Sigh. Nintendo's public image wouldn't change (at least amongst the millions of gamers who frequent the internet), and sales, ultimately, run the risk of not really changing from the Wii U days.

Yep. It wouldn't even cost that much to make it as powerful as the PS4 by the time of it's release anyway. So they really have no reason not to compete unless whatever gimmick (Don't mean it in a negative way, but by its literal definition.) they come up with pushes the price high like the gamepad did. Which would be a shame.

And am I the only one that wants more power for things other than visuals? Do people forget how amazing it is to be able to multi task? Especially for Nintendo, they would benefit amazingly from a quicker console since they have miiverse. They could definitely stand to make posting and uploading things faster and easier. And the automatic game DVR on the PS4 and One, as much as people here might claim to find it useless, would be perfect for miiverse. Maybe have the last 5 or 10 minutes always be recording so that if something cool happens you can post it on your miiverse blog or whatever.

I've said countless times that a powerful console can do much more than handle power demanding games. More Nintendo fans need to open their eyes to this. Stop being fine with weak hardware that can barely do anything. And that's not a shot at 3DS and Wii U. I love them but they can barely multitask and are not fast at all.

Yes, thank you. Power doesn't just mean pretty graphics. Especially since we're seeing diminishing returns on them anyway. It means so much more.

@Operative: The problem is Nintendo stated they're the problem regarding recording game footage though. The 1 minute limit for MK8 races were their intentional choice because "it wouldn't be fun watching a whole race", same for refusing twitch streaming on Wii U. I also wonder whether the Youtube uploads for Smash are also gimped in some way.

@Grumblevolcano: I like to think they'll eventually realize just how massive of a part things like twitch play in the industry eventually. Instead of having the arrogance to tell us what would and would not be fun. I wouldn't be surprised to see them change their minds.

Not trying to raise an argument here, and not saying I disagree, but if Nintendo did give us enough power to multitask, but not much power to compete graphically, wouldn't you still complain?

People will complain about anything. If Nintendo made a system just like the PS4 or XB1 then there would be complaints that there wasn't enough to differentiate them from the competition. You can't please everyone, who should they focus on is the better question. Should they focus on the PS4/XB1 crowd? Those people already have the consoles they want. Should they focus on the die-hard Nintendo fans? That isn't a wide enough audience, just look at the Wii U. Maybe they should focus on providing a unique experience, while providing basic services that people have grown to expect in a gaming system. Keep the Nintendo charm while also providing the basics, Party Chat is a basic while Twitch streaming is not. A Twitch app to watch steams would be nice but being able to stream your games isn't necessary for most. Nintendo just needs to find the balance between what is considered necessary for consumers and providing their unique experiences.

It's not arrogance, it's good business practice. Giving someone tools that CAN be fun in a certain capacity wouldn't really attract as much attention as something that's fun out of the box.

I think gamers can get really arrogant and assume they are the majority. They aren't. Probably less than 40%. There are a lot more semi-casuals out there. I put kids and adults who buy 3 or fewer games per year in that group. They enjoy video games, but it's a smal part of their lives. This group doesn't care that much about sharing. Really, sharing is only relevant to a fraction of hardcore gamers. That's not to say it shouldn't be a feature, but it's not all that important.

@Blast
The only multitasking I want the console doing outside of running the game is voice chat (which is technically still part of the game) and internet radio streaming. Being able to stream music from the web would mean you could make a title like GTA (in which the player can scan the radio in the game world) without licensing fees in the millions of dollars.

@iKhan: Why can't we get tools that CAN be fun while also having the fun out of the box? I mean, just put it in for those who enjoy it, especially since streaming is so extremely popular. But don't tell us it's not fun. If anything I'd argue it definitely is not good business practice to just ignore huge changes in gaming and how people consume games. It's not all that important in the end on a gameplay basis. But to just ignore the extremely huge influence that things like Twitch and game streaming have done to gaming and to list it off as "not fun" is just blinding yourself to the truth (Nintendo, not you of course).

If the NX is a super casual Nintendo console that has some modern day features but can't even get the latest Final Fantasy or Call of Duty or any other big 3rd party series... It will fail. And the Wii U could've been a hardcore Nintendo fan's dream but Nintendo blew it. Nintendo shouldn't have even said anything about NX. Their 1st priority should've been making Wii U owners happy and satisfied with a onslaught of high quality 1st party games.

I also hope the Nintendo fans who keep insisting that the NX doesn't really compete knows what that truly means. That means not only will the NX lose nearly 3rd party game but also that literally every 1st party game would need to be near flawless. That's a lot of pressure. No more Mario Party 10 or Animal Crossing Amiibo Party like games. If the NX is going for a secondary console role then there is no room for 1st party games that are bad and that nobody asked for!!!

If the Wii U did anything right, it was its exclusives, and even those weren't enough. The Wii U failed for many different reasons, and it's obvious that Nintendo has to learn from those mistakes and improve on those errors if they want to continue making home consoles. So since Nintendo continues to insist that they do not what to compete, then as far as I'm aware the only way they can do that is by appealing to a different demographic than Sony or MS, which will be interesting to see, to say the least.

Because then those features won't be perceived as fun. The fun experience will only come with a certain implementation. That said, it's a failure on Nintendo's part to not recognize that a whole lot of people find watching long segments of gameplay fun.

But at the same time, I think the impact of Twitch streaming is overblown. Maybe that's just my bias because I personally couldn't care less, but I don't think it has much of a meaningful impact on the medium. I think of it as almost a separate culture. On top of that, I see the culture as one with mostly content consumers, and some creators. Streaming is really only valuable to the creator.